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SPECTOR® Club - Part 48

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#102
im here. ssl
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#103
Just read a cool Rush article in the Nov 2012 Premier Guitar Magazine.

Typical conversation about gear, the new record, touring, etc. with Geddy and Alex.

When asked if any new instruments have caught his eye lately other than Fender, he says just one:

"I'm pretty hardcore Fender right now.... I've got a beautifully made Spector that I've played around with and quite like.... aside from that, not really."

Kinda cool!
 
#104
Baird6869 said:
Just read a cool Rush article in the Nov 2012 Premier Guitar Magazine.

Typical conversation about gear, the new record, touring, etc. with Geddy and Alex.

When asked if any new instruments have caught his eye lately other than Fender, he says just one:

"I'm pretty hardcore Fender right now.... I've got a beautifully made Spector that I've played around with and quite like.... aside from that, not really."

Kinda cool!
Click to expand...

That's cool! I'd love to hear Geddy playing a Spector.
 
#106
smadder said:
Well John....

They are both awesome for different reasons. I feel like I could walk into any rock, metal, funk, or even a neo-soul or hip-hop gig with the 18v because if the rawness and tone signature and power (especially if you play with a pick - I don't regularly, but for those of you who do... be prepared to have your mind blown).

An 18v powered BQC could cop those tones I just described, but not imitate them exactly. But the BQC can also do a heck of a lot more in terms of shaping your tone with the 4-way adjustable treble center point and the fully sweepable mid. The BQC at 18v gets all of the tone out of your EMG humbuckers like the US Spector 18v does, but it's voicing is more neutral and flexible (and no where near as hot or aggressive) and you can end up using your Spector in genres you may not usually think about using them in. And as far as cost goes... EMG is most assuredly the less expensive experiment to try out.

After hearing an NS-2, 4 and 5 in person, I decided that I wanted to get those pres in four of my basses and see if it would turn them into USA Spectors. They don't (duh), but they get awfully damn close. Close enough to where I'm pleased with them.

But I do not discount selling one of them off one day and putting a BQC back into one of my Spectors because of it's almost limitless flexibility.

But for now, I am really relishing how great these 18v pres sound. I can't wait for the 9vs to get here... then the experimentation will be complete!
Click to expand...
Awesome report Steve! Thank you! :D :bassist: Your mod job on the Euro-5 looks meticulous and very CLEAN! Awesome job! :D
 
#110
All this talk of holoflash... if ya got em, post em...
Like Tat, I love the look of this bass. It's only surpassed by the feel of the neck, which is the best 5 string neck I own, ultra thin (front to back) and fast.
Does the Rex5 have a different neck profile than other Spector 5 strings?
REX2.jpg
 
#112
Baird6869 said:
Just read a cool Rush article in the Nov 2012 Premier Guitar Magazine.

Typical conversation about gear, the new record, touring, etc. with Geddy and Alex.

When asked if any new instruments have caught his eye lately other than Fender, he says just one:

"I'm pretty hardcore Fender right now.... I've got a beautifully made Spector that I've played around with and quite like.... aside from that, not really."

Kinda cool!
Click to expand...


In case anyone was wondering I found out the inside scoop on this.

Recently, PJ delivered two basses to his long time friend Geddy.

You would think a Coda, but no it was a;

Euro4LX : solid black gloss, 1.50" nut.

NS-2J : Aguilar 70's pickups, all passive, black gloss body, 1.50" nut, chrome hardware, birdseye maple board with Spector inlays.
 
#118
ok guys. looks like im going to purchase an amp. got the approval from the wife and im going to shop it out. really looking for a gk or aguilar. i know some of you guys play through one of these 2. so please, any helpful advice through one of these is appreciated. remember, i play mostly heavier music so im going to need the mids a little more outputted from the awesome spectors. and an other thing, i am pretty versatile style wise, so versatility is also key. thanks.
 
#119
smadder said:
Well John....

They are both awesome for different reasons. I feel like I could walk into any rock, metal, funk, or even a neo-soul or hip-hop gig with the 18v because if the rawness and tone signature and power (especially if you play with a pick - I don't regularly, but for those of you who do... be prepared to have your mind blown).

An 18v powered BQC could cop those tones I just described, but not imitate them exactly. But the BQC can also do a heck of a lot more in terms of shaping your tone with the 4-way adjustable treble center point and the fully sweepable mid. The BQC at 18v gets all of the tone out of your EMG humbuckers like the US Spector 18v does, but it's voicing is more neutral and flexible (and no where near as hot or aggressive) and you can end up using your Spector in genres you may not usually think about using them in. And as far as cost goes... EMG is most assuredly the less expensive experiment to try out.

After hearing an NS-2, 4 and 5 in person, I decided that I wanted to get those pres in four of my basses and see if it would turn them into USA Spectors. They don't (duh), but they get awfully damn close. Close enough to where I'm pleased with them.

But I do not discount selling one of them off one day and putting a BQC back into one of my Spectors because of it's almost limitless flexibility.

But for now, I am really relishing how great these 18v pres sound. I can't wait for the 9vs to get here... then the experimentation will be complete!
Click to expand...

Steve - great looking install! Nice to see some love for the USA 18-v pre. Like you said, it's not the same as the 9-v, but that's why I love it - it has it's own thing going on, and it sounds thunderous when paired with the EMG DC pups..
 
#120
iceboxbass said:
Awesome report Steve! Thank you! :D :bassist: Your mod job on the Euro-5 looks meticulous and very CLEAN! Awesome job! :D
Click to expand...

Actually... there's another option for you to look at:

The BQC is a great circuit, which does sound great at 18v.

The Spector USA 18v Circuit has a great tone, quality and I honestly think it's my favorite circuit overall.

But recently I had an opportunity to revisit Aguilar's circuits in a new way and I have to admit I was pretty much blown away.

The bass below was made for Quintin Berry. It is a custom job done as a "thank you" to Quintin for all of his years as a loyal, faithful Spector Artist. And Stuart even gave it a special serial number, NS-4Q #1-804. It's NS-4 #804. But it's the first model made with this special control setup. And Stuart realized more people may want it.

PJ hasn't instructed me to change the NS-4 webpage yet, meaning it's not officially being offered as of yet. But I want one. I love the two compact, small knobs and how you get so much beautiful NS-Body wood with this setup.

The two knobs are actually routed into the space that the former (no longer offered) piezo bridge controls fit into.

This NS-4, when I plugged it in and dialed in my Redwood NS-4's settings... sounded just like my Water-Cured Redwood. So I immediately opened the back cover to see how Stuart had shoe-horned the USA 18v circuit into that configuration.

And I was shocked to find an OBP-2 sitting there staring back at me... running at 18v. For the next hour I A-B'd my NS-4 and Quintin's NS-4 and the sound was so close most of the time that I made it a point to talk to Dave Boonshoft at Aguilar during BPL about it.

Here's why I want to try the OBP-3 at 18v now. I didn't realize it... but Dave explained that the OBP-3 is special because they used both Operational Amplifiers (think Spector USA 9v Circuit) and JFET (think Spector USA 18v and TonePump Circuit) to make that single 3-band OBP-3 circuit.

So it's the best of both worlds... the analog, solid-state growl and grit with the clean, powerful, articulate JFET tech.

I've honestly decided to revisit the OBP-2 and OBP-3 circuits because I think when you add the extra headroom of another 9v battery to them it elevates their abilities into a totally different tonal realm.

The EMG is good... but it sounds like an EMG circuit... and I just can't get over how much the 2-band OBP-2 sounded like the 2-band Spector 18v circuit when you run the OBP-2 at 18v.

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